Governors I. Is Excavated After Discovery

By RONALD SULLIVAN

Published: June 4, 1994

Workers digging an electrical trench on Governors Island uncovered human remains this week, and archeologists were carefully excavating a tiny section of the island yesterday to determine whether there is an uncharted burial ground.

Dr. Leonore Santone, an archeologist called in by the Coast Guard, which uses the island in New York Harbor as a base, said, "We definitely have uncovered one skeleton and there appears to be evidence of perhaps two more."

But Dr. Santone said it was much too early to speculate whether more remains will be uncovered. She was called in by the Coast Guard after forensic experts from the New York City Medical Examiner's office determined that the skeletons were historic and not victims of some recent crime. Digging Over the Weekend

Dr. Santone is supervising an initial excavation of about 30 feet by 30 feet on the northwest corner of the island, facing the Battery on the lower tip of Manhattan. She said the digging would proceed over the weekend, and hoped that it would produce more conclusive evidence.

One piece of evidence, the stem of a clay pipe, was said to date from about the year 1800.

The discovery of the human bones by workers late Tuesday recalled a similar discovery in 1991 when construction workers found the first evidence of a large, uncharted 18th-century burial ground for blacks on a site for a planned Federal office building annex on Broadway at Duane Street. Construction was halted at the site, which was subsequently designated a national landmark.

Lieut. Commander Paul Milligan, a Coast Guard spokesman, said records did not disclose any burial ground on the island. But during the American Revolution, the 160-acre island was used by the British as a site for an army hospital.

Originally purchased by the Dutch in 1637, the island was used by a succession of English governors after 1674 as a private recreation preserve. The island was also used as a quarantine station, a race track, a summer resort, an artillery fort and as a prison of war camp.

In 1794 the island was placed under United States military control and remained an Army post until it was taken over by the Coast Guard in 1966.

Photo: Dr. Lenore Santone and Ron Kearns, archeologists working at the Governors Island site, went about the slow, meticulous job of searching for clues that might tell whether it was once a burial ground. (Chris Maynard for The New York Times) Map: Site of excavation on Governors Island